by Andrew Griffin | May 13, 2025 | England, Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
JAMES Knight turned back the clock to the days when he stood toe-to-toe with the likes Luke Donald and Justin Rose as England’s two finest amateur talents, to claim his first Hampshire Order of Merit victory, in the Delhi Cup at Hockley. The Sandford Springs club...
by Andrew Griffin | May 13, 2025 | England, Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
DELHI Cup winner James Knight sent out a stark reminder that there is another mid-amateur capable of stepping into the Hampshire first-team, after county captain Toby Burden lost two of his rising college graduates to the pro ranks. Having been recalled to the...
by Andrew Griffin | Sep 2, 2024 | Courage Trophy, Hampshire, Mid Amateur, News, Order of Merit
FORMER Saints and Leeds footballer Paul Telfer should know about giant-killing, having been on the receiving end, and having helped Celtic pull off a shock in the Champions League by beating Manchester United. But now, 15 years after the retirement of the defender –...
by Andrew Griffin | Aug 31, 2024 | Courage Trophy, Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
THE 2024 Hampshire Golf season and the race for the Cullen Quaich is turning into a shoot-out between North Hants’ Robert Wheeler and James Atkins, starting at Aldershot’s Army Golf Club. The pair are playing in the Courage Trophy on Sunday, at Army GC, with less than...
by Andrew Griffin | Aug 10, 2024 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
A STRONG field containinging four of the last seven Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Champions will contest the 42nd Stoneham Trophy on Saturday, as the county’s Order of Merit winds up towards next month’s finale. Stoneham’s James Freeman, who...
by Andrew Griffin | Apr 16, 2024 | England, Hampshire, National, News, Order of Merit, South East
DARREN Walkley suffered heartbreak on countback for the second time in a year, as he missed out on the biggest win of his amateur career by a whisker. Liphook GC’s former player on Europe’s mini-pro tours lost out by virtue of a worse score in the Hampshire Hog, as...
by Andrew Griffin | Apr 16, 2024 | England, Hampshire, National, News, Order of Merit, South East
THE amateur career of Connor Bell has largely been played in the shadow of his older brother Jonathan, who was an England Boys international as a teenager, having been crowned a Wee Wonders Champion several times before he was even 11. But now it is the turn of the...
by Andrew Griffin | Sep 2, 2023 | Championship, Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
FOR the first time in the event’s 10-year history, the Hampshire Order of Merit will have been decided before a ball has been struck in the season’s finale at the 2023 Courage Trophy. With Joe Buenfeld back at Texas” University of the Incarnate Word for the start of...
by Andrew Griffin | Aug 14, 2023 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
DARREN Walkley produced one of the biggest turnarounds of his career to claim the Mike Smith Memorial Trophy at Brokenhurst Manor, on Saturday. The Liphook member was less than a happy camper at lunch having shot five-over par on the course where he claimed the...
by Andrew Griffin | Aug 13, 2023 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
JOE Buenfeld shot his lowest competitive round at Stoneham to win the Southampton club’s Stoneham Trophy, which counts to towards the Hampshire Order of Merit. A stunning 64 in the opening round gave the Bramshaw GC member a six-shot lead at lunch – and followed that...
by Andrew Griffin | May 15, 2023 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
THEY call it the nappy factor in golf gambling – backing players on the American and European Tours, who have recently become fathers, especially for the first time, to win their first title, or one of the big events such as a Major. Well for Stoneham’s former pro...
by Andrew Griffin | May 13, 2023 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
DARREN Walkley believes his experience of playing Hayling’s windy links has given him the edge when it comes to winning his two Delhi Cups at Hockley Golf Club. The hilltop course is perched on top of Twyford Down, above the M3 cutting on the outskirts of Winchester...
by Andrew Griffin | May 12, 2023 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
DARREN Walkley insists he is not setting himself any targets as the Hampshire Order of Merit heads to Hockley GC, on Saturday – a venue where he was won the Delhi Cup twice already in his career. The best Hampshire amateurs are heading to Twyford Down for the 36-hole...
by Andrew Griffin | Apr 14, 2023 | England, Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
NORTH Hants Golf Club’s big weekend gets under way with the Hampshire Hog dinner on Friday night, when DP World Tour Ryder Cup director Guy Kinnings is the guest at the event’s annual dinner. Kinnings spent many years working for IMG, the worldwide sports management...
by Andrew Griffin | Apr 14, 2023 | England, Hampshire, News, Order of Merit, South East
THE story of how Justin Rose announced his great talents by winning the Hampshire Hog as a 14-year-old nearly 30 years ago has been inspiring junior golfers across the county ever since. Within three years, the North Hants GC member, from Hook, became the...
by Andrew Griffin | Apr 12, 2023 | England, Hampshire, News, Order of Merit, South East
THE Selborne Salver honours board is peppered with some of the great names in amateur golf, who have gone on to have big successes in the pro ranks. Ross Fisher and Andy Sullivan have played Ryder Cups in the last 13 years while last year’s US Open winner Matt...
by Andrew Griffin | Sep 3, 2022 | Championship, Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
ON PAPER it is some thing of a mystery in Hampshire golf – why is it nearly 40 years since the Courage Trophy has been held at North Hants GC? It was 1985 when the then Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Golf Union last staged the county strokeplay...
by Andrew Griffin | Sep 2, 2022 | Championship, Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
HAYLING’S Toby Burden has the chance to create some Hampshire Golf history on Sunday, when he defends his Courage Trophy and the county’s Order of Merit crowns. The 2019 Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Champion became the 11th player in the...
by Andrew Griffin | Aug 5, 2022 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
THE race to be crowned the 2022 Hampshire Order of Merit winner gathers pace when the Stoneham and Mike Smith Memorial trophies – which make up the Solent Salver – are held at Stoneham and Brokenhurst Manor respectively this weekend. The two 36-hole club opens...
by Andrew Griffin | Aug 5, 2022 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
AFTER making his unexpected county debut in the heavy defeat against Surrey last weekend, James Atkins is convinced it has only made him more determined to play with the county’s top amateurs more often. The North Hants GC member answered an SOS from Hampshire captain...
by Andrew Griffin | May 16, 2022 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
STONEHAM’S James Freeman claimed his first men’s open title by winning Hockley’s Delhi Cup in the first Hampshire Order of Merit event of the season. And the two-time Hampshire Junior Champion had to fend off former England U16 international George Saunders and...
by Andrew Griffin | May 13, 2022 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit, Uncategorized
THE Hampshire Order of Merit gets under way on Saturday with the first qualifying event – the Delhi Cup at Hockley GC – which features four members of the Hampshire first-team that put Dorset to the sword at Liphook GC, on Sunday. County captain Neil Dawson is in the...
by Andrew Griffin | Sep 7, 2021 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
HAYLING’S Toby Burden became the first player ever to claim the treble by winning the Courage Trophy, Cole Scuttle and the Hampshire Order of Merit in one go. Victory by a shot over Rowlands Castle’s Darren Wright and Stoneham’s Ryan Moody – denying the latter the...
by Andrew Griffin | Sep 4, 2021 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
TOBY Burden can point to his fair share of bad luck since the COVID pandemic hit golf nearly 18 months ago. He has been beaten by a birdie on the 18th in the last two finals of the Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship. But in 2020, defeat...
by Andrew Griffin | Sep 3, 2021 | Hampshire, News, Order of Merit
ONLY three players have won the Courage Trophy back-to-back in its 59-year history. But Stoneham’s Ryan Moody knows if he can retain the Hampshire strokeplay title he won 12 months ago on his home course, greater glory probably awaits. For the 30-year-old Southampton...
